That >8,000 lb. winch is a waste of money.

That doesn’t look like it would fit in a backpack.

 

Master Lock?


World renowned off-road brand if I've ever heard of one.

 

Backpacks were just around the corner, I shoulda tested.

 

All of the jokes about 400’ of rope got me to remembering. On one occasion we needed to pull a large individual up about 150’. Obviously the winch cable wasn’t long enough.

We stripped the winch drum and after hooking on to the stokes we put three wraps of climbing rope around the drum and used it as a capstan.

One of the guys hooked himself to the back of the stoked to sort of guide it over the rough spots. Worked out very well and we stuck that one in our back pocket for future reference.

Point is tools are just tools. Their utility is limited only by experience and imagination.

 

In OP defense, I have several times resorted to using antique wooden 2 pulley block and tackle around the yard for general stuff not involving the truck to get the same MA being talked about to a lesser force level. Lesson learned:

1) takes a long time and effort to set up
2) you spend a lot of effort pulling rope just to take up slack in the system
3) you spend a lot more effort pulling rope to take up the rope stretch in the 5 strands of rope
4) there is a lot of friction in the system so instead of a 4:1 MA you may only get a 3:1 or a 3.5:1 MA
5) by now, you’re getting exhausted and the log you’re trying to pull has not yet budged
6) if you let go now, the rope tension and weight of pulleys will snap back and take you back to step 2
7) if you call out to girlfriend/wife/significant other to help pull, they get pissed at you when they break a nail trying to help. Log has still not budged
7) Ok to let go rope, get chain saw and cut log into smaller pieces , go back to step 2
8) Successfully drag a short log up hill
9) Hand carry rest of log pieces up hill when discover that friction in system makes it nearly impossible to pull the pulley back to starting point as it needs to feed in 4’ of rope for every foot you want to pull it
10) leave pulley and rope and chain out in yard for a week knowing how much time it will take to take system apart , coil 100’ of rope plus another 40’ of chain.
11) buy a Warn M8000 so you don’t have to do it again.
12) place Craigslist ad for antique wooden block n tackle set

 

You just have the wrong backpack.

 

Thanks for that middle school flashback of a once young nerd that refused to store textbooks in his locker. Which somehow turned into the high school nerd that refused to retrieve textbooks from his locker. Maybe if they equipped kids backpacks with ATV winches I would have been a better student.

 

Well you seem to have the competency of a junior high schooler with this subject.

 

Good questions.

The right prusik cord will grab a synthetic line with enough wraps, but there are lots of reasons to not do that; the biggest one being synthetic line has a dangerously low melting point, and just a little slippage from the prusik can cause the line to fail.

A wire grab that holds 6,000 lbs. would probably be expensive, so I did not consider it, because at that cost I would be better off buying a bigger winch.

A 6mm prusik holding 6K lbs would be amazing. (Where do you find 6mm 3K cord that's good for prusiks??). But a safety factor of 1.09 (6K on a 5,500 GVWR) is a lit fuse. Also, prusiks don't produce 2x their cord's minimum breaking strength: the tail close to the load gets cut by the "bridge" of the prusik before then. (Now you have me thinking about trying to link 2 or more prusiks through rigging rings for load distribution, but that's not what I've been doing.)

I found a spot today to make the video, and since this thread has generated such insane disbelief, I will wait to talk about the rest then. But I'm guessing it is still two weeks from now before I can get out there to do it.

 

Which atv winch did you decide on for this test?

 

Have you recovered a stuck vehicle in the manner you described?

 

Bottom line Do what works for you and you like .

I would much rather hang a 12,000 pound winch on a 4000 pound vehicle and have the rigging to use a 4:1 Mechanical Advantage when things get serious .

I wanna see this rigged ATV winch pull most any 4x4 out of mud completely buried to the grill

I have heard the famous words I can get through there all to often.

Keeping a open mind

 

I wouldn't call it "insane disbelief." It seems more like some folks are pointing out the flaws in your reasoning.

I don't think anyone here doubts that an undersized winch can recover a stuck vehicle... eventually. It's more about how much simpler and safer it is to use the proper size winch for your application.

In order to do a truly objective test of your method, I would suggest that you also invite someone with a properly sized winch mounted to their truck to join you. Have them duplicate the recovery you demonstrate with their winch. Please post full length videos of both demonstrations so we can compare the amount of time each method takes.

Can you also please post a complete list of the equipment you'll be using, so we can all see the actual cost of this setup?

 

He already said he's using climbing rope that's been used for years as his extension rope which is such an awesome choice with the amount it stretches especially when it gets wet. So he's using shit around the house

 

Sounds pretty safe to me.

@TomHGZ , I'm still wondering how you're attaching this setup to your truck? Are you adding recovery points somehow?

 

Hopes and dreams

 

I notice how he just keeps ignoring pertinent questions like this. It should make the demonstration interesting.

 

And math. I’m curious which winch (haha) he’s using that has a line speed much better than the HF winch without costing almost as much as a properly sized winch.

 

Good question!

@TomHGZ , we're all waiting!

 

Re: prussiks depending on the diameter differential (Prussik cord needs to be smaller diameter than the haul line its attaching to) and the # of wraps, the Prussik cord will slip when exceeding a design load, and the friction during that slip generates enough heat to melt the prussik cord into the haul line. The beauty of this, amd why prussik cord method is used in life safety over mechanical rope grabs, is the main line does not fail. That said, you won't be able to separate the prussik from the main line, and end up throwing it all away. To increase the slip force, you can increase the # of wraps to get even smaller increases in load capability, or better yet add additional prussiks in series such that the load is shared to a common attachment point. Of course this takes up valuable main line space. Of consideration on the mechanical advantage is the friction losses generated, and the more lines you have dragging through the dirt, a bigger problem than friction losses through the pulleys, you'll be using up a fair bit of your pulling capacity on overcoming that friction before even actually moving the intended vehicle.

In conclusion, on paper the OPs idea would work, until you apply all the variables and real life application, the properly rated single line pull of a larger winch overcomes the challenges of the more complex system.

I can tell you from the rescue world we apply the lowest MA factor possible given the available manpower and staying inside maximum haul factor #s to maximize speed, and less stops to do fewer resets of the prussiks.